Panaji: In a startling revelation, historians
in Goa have claimed that it is the Indian Army, and not the
Goa government that possesses the original historic `treaty of
surrender that was signed 50 years back between the Indian
Army and Portugal Government at the time of Goa liberation.

The original copy is displayed on a wall at the Indian
Army’s 2STC office in Panaji, a historian Sanjiv Sardesai
said.

The historians, who researched the incidents that took
place on December 19, 1961, when Goa was freed from the
shackles of the 450-year long Portuguese rule, have said that
the original treaty remains to be out of bound of state
government.

"What we are showing to the public as a treaty of
surrender is not the original one," he said.

Desai pointed out that the state government’s official
diary has printed an unsigned letter by the then Portuguese
Commandant of Armed Forces General Manuel Antonio Vassalo
Silva, as the treaty.

The confusion over the treaty continues as a different
letter in Portuguese, signed by Silva, is displayed in the Goa
state museum gallery on `Goa Freedom Struggle`.

Sardesai said that the original treaty has signatures of
Major General KP Candeth, who led Operation Vijay to liberate
Goa. The original document also carries the signature of
Silva.

"It is in Portuguese and the same text is translated in
English below it," he explained.